New Reports of Antricola guglielmonei and Antricola delacruzi in Brazil, and a Description of a New Argasid Species (Acari)

Abstract

Adults of 3 tick species (Acari: Argasidae) identified as Antricola guglielmonei, Antricola delacruzi, and Carios rondoniensis n. sp. were collected on bat guano in a cave in the state of Rondônia, western Amazon, Brazil. Adults of C. rondoniensis possess a unique combination of characters that distinguish them from all described adults in the Argasidae, i.e., a large spiracular plate densely filled with small goblets, a well-developed flap covering the female genital opening, and palpi containing several tufts of long setae on articles 2 and 3. Unlike Ornithodoros or other Carios species, adults of C. rondoniensis have a scooplike hypostome devoid of denticles, as in Antricola spp. Conversely, the presence of a pair of long posthypostomal setae, and a slitlike transverse fissure at the capsule opening of the Haller's organ, are characters of C. rondonensis that are also found in species of Carios and Ornithodoros, but not in Antricola species. Molecular analyses inferred from a portion of the 16S rRNA mitochondrial gene indicate that C. rondoniensis is phylogenetically closest to species of Carios, followed by species of Antricola, and then Ornithodoros. Because the highest bootstrap value linking C. rondoniensis to Carios spp. was 62%, further phylogenetic studies are needed to better evaluate the taxonomic status of the former species.

Gut transcriptome analysis on females of Ornithodoros mimon (Acari: Argasidae) and phylogenetic inference of ticks

“…The classical systematics and taxonomy of the family Argasidae were modified through elevation of the subgenus Carios to genus status, and this new genus included ticks associated with bats that belonged to the genera Antricola and Nothoaspis, and to the subgenera of Ornithodoros (Alectorobius, Subparmatus and Reticulinasus) and Argas (Chiropterargas and Carios) (KLOMPEN & OLIVER, 1993). These modifications were adopted by some taxonomists (HORAK et al, 2002;BARKER & MURRELL, 2004;LABRUNA et al, 2008;BARROS-BATTESTI et al, 2011), but other researchers questioned the position of Antricola and Nothoaspis, and revalidated them as genera in different phylogenetic analyses (LABRUNA et al, 2008(LABRUNA et al, , 2011VENZAL et al, 2008VENZAL et al, , 2012NAVA et al, 2009NAVA et al, , 2010ESTRADA-PEÑA et al, 2006. Other studies in the Neotropical region have also suggested that there is a close phylogenetic relationship between the genera Antricola and Ornithodoros (Alectorobius) (LABRUNA et al, 2008(LABRUNA et al, , 2011NAVA et al, 2009;ESTRADA-PEÑA et al, 2006VENZAL et al, 2012).…”

“…Considering the uncertainty of the classification of the family Argasidae by the phylogenetic analysis of ticks (LABRUNA et al, 2008(LABRUNA et al, , 2011NAVA et al, 2009;ESTRADA-PEÑA et al, 2006VENZAL et al, 2012;BURGER et al, 2014), we have adopted the classical systematic proposed by Hoogstraal (1985). This classification, adopted by Guglielmone et al (2010), considers the following genera as valid to family Argasidae: Antricola, Argas, Nothoaspis, Ornithodoros and Otobius.…”

Comments on controversial tick (Acari: Ixodida) species names and species described or resurrected from 2003 to 2008

“…Argas keiransi Estrada-Peña, Venzal and González-Acuña, 2003. Labruna et al 2008. The morphological and molecular relationships of this species to the type taxon of the genus, Carios vespertilionis Latreille, 1796, are ambiguous.…”

Carios fonsecai sp. nov. (Acari, Argasidae), a bat tick from the central-western region of Brazil

“…More recently, Labruna et al (2008) described a new argasid species from northern Brazil, which was named Carios rondoniensis Labruna, Terassini, Camargo, Brandão, Ribeiro et Estrada-Peña, 2008. This new species was assigned to the genus Carios Latreille, 1796, based partially on the classification proposed by Klompen and Oliver (1993), who concluded that bat-associated argasids (including all Antricola and various Ornithodoros species) are part of a single, monophyletic lineage of ticks.…”

“…Since this proposal would require invalidation of Antricola, it has not been accepted by some researchers, who consider it premature and have argued that additional evidence is needed from studies on morphology, life histories, host associations, and molecular taxonomy (Estrada-Peña et al 2004;Guglielmone et al 2005;Venzal et al 2006Venzal et al , 2008. On the other hand, Labruna et al (2008) considered the bat-associated Ornithodoros species as belonging to the genus Carios, but retained Antricola as valid genus, as supported by preliminary genetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene. This same preliminary genetic analysis, which contain only a few Argasidae taxa, seem to support earlier proposals from Russia and France, that included bat-associated Ornithodoros species into a formerly proposed genus named Allectorobius (Pospelova-Shtrom 1946), which was subsequently reduced to a subgenus of Ornithodoros (Filippova 1961).…”